


Goodnight

by Sylenis



Series: Don't be a Stranger (Kidge AU) [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, early-ish relationship, everyone's crush on Shiro, long distance communication, mentions of other paladins and Matt, tired ramblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 19:37:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20606198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylenis/pseuds/Sylenis
Summary: There's long distance relationships, and there's working in separate galaxies.Alternatively, Keith has something he's working up to telling Pidge.





	Goodnight

Pidge tossed the larger of her towels into the hamper and wound the second around her head to catch her hair. She stepped off the bathmat and into her slippers and retrieved the over-large hoodie off the hook on the door, slipping it on over her pajamas. Padding out onto the carpet of her room, her bed had rarely looked so inviting. She flipped her hairbrush in her hand and then pulled her pillows up against the headboard before flopping over to lounge on the soft blankets.  
  
She scrubbed at her hair with her towel, letting herself dig into her scalp with her fingertips to relieve the last of the tension the hot water hadn't. Oh she was so ready for bed. Or, to try at least. Evenings always started this way, with her feeling the tug of sleep on her eyes, but without fail as soon as her head hit the pillow, her brain would light up again with a thousand thoughts intermingling and bouncing off each other like bugs in the night.  
  
She'd tried it all. Spending hours on crazy workouts, playing recordings of the most boring Garrison lectures, everything short of literal tranquilizers. It was guaranteed that she would spend all night trying to quiet the buzz of her mind, only to fall asleep during the day, at her desk, on a couch, in a random corner or some other inconvenient place.  
  
The tablet on her desk began to chime a tune that had her scrambling to untangle herself from the wrinkles in the blanket and scoop it up, plans for sleep forgotten. Setting it up on her nightstand, the screen flickered to life and she sat back, grin wide.  
  
"Hey, you."  
Keith's smile was awkwardly bashful, even on the small screen, but when he saw her face his shoulders relaxed.  
  
"Got you first time."  
"It's some sort of record." She joked, and rearranged her legs into a crossed position, propping an elbow on her knee and resting her chin in her hand. "Got a quiet evening over there?"  
"I have no idea what sort of time it is here, the day cycles are about forty vargas each-" The screen wobbled as his arms obscured her view, and suddenly she was looking at a golden sky with three bright suns overhead. "We're just kind of working until we need to call it quits and then try and rest."  
  
"That's gotta mess with your sleep cycle. I hope you're not using this as an excuse to work until you drop." A forty varga day was exactly the kind of thing Keith would see as a challenge. The view settled back onto his face again with only a few bumps and audible thumps. One eyebrow was raised as he looked at her, the promise of incoming sarcasm radiating from him.  
"Me? Overwork? What a notion." He said dryly. "You're one to talk- have you eaten today?"  
  
"I have." Pidge answered proudly. "Matt made a pasta bake with salad." She shot him a smile as she tossed the damp towel to the floor. "What a symbiotic relationship we have, reminding each other to eat and sleep." She groped for her hairbrush, caught somewhere in the pools of bedding, and began to attack the fluffy ends of her hair with it.  
"I can catch up on my sleep. There's nothing on you at all."   
"I beg to differ, check these guns." Pidge pushed her baggy sleeves back and flexed her arms until she got a laugh out of him, then returned to her task of taming her hair.  
  
As she worked on her bangs, she pulled them forward until they lay over her eyes and past her nose. Lately she'd just been pinning all her hair back, but keeping track of ties and headbands was an interesting endeavor. Frustrating when her hair was long enough to get in the way, but still too short to easily tie back.   
Keith snorted as she grinned blindly at the camera. 

"Jeez, I think I'm due a trim, don't you?"   
"Just a little bit."

"Everyone says I should grow it out again." Pidge inspected the ends on the sides that now reached a little past her shoulder when wet. "I used to have long hair, did you know?"  
"I've seen photos. And I think I saw you a couple times visiting your dad and Matt back in the old days."

"I kind of like the idea, I liked having long hair but..." She let it flop back over her shoulder and leaned forward, elbows on her knees. "Katie had long hair. Katie wore headbands and pigtails and braids. Katie... Couldn't prove her family was still alive."   
  
She frowned at the memory of long wisps falling into the sink and the sleeves of her uniform. The icy pool in her stomach as a part of her was cut away to make room for someone else. Each snip of the scissors had stilled a cold ripple of anxiety, replacing it with the burning desire for truth. Katie had failed. Pidge would succeed.

"Pidge... had to let go of all that?" Keith ventured, and she tilted her head, pursing her lips.  
"Kind of, I guess. I'm still me, but sometimes... being 'Katie' feels like a lifetime ago. Anyway-" She shook her head, hair flying and settling like a bird's nest around her head. "What do you think- long or short?"

"You're asking my opinion?"  
"I never said I'd follow your advice. I could do the opposite. You could say 'long' and my contrary-ass self will go shave it off, get a sick undercut like Shiro."

"You are quite contrary..." Keith smirked, "You could pull off an undercut. Or shave one side, leave the other long. Best of both worlds."  
"I remember begging my mom to let me cut my hair like Shiro's when Matt first brought him around for dinner. I was about ten."  
"I bet she loved that." He hummed, and she grinned.

"I had the dorkiest crush on Shiro for ages. Then again so did Matt, only he never got over it."   
"Can anyone truthfully say they've never had a crush on Shiro?" Pidge tossed her head back to bark out a laugh and missed his fond smile.  
Looking back at him, she flipped a lock of hair with her hand and wiggled her eyebrows at him in a _"well?"_ sort of way.

"Are the scissors coming out? Ooh, or the clippers?"  
Keith pulled his lower lip in between his teeth as he looked at her, eyes lingering on the hair curling around her jaw.  
"Hmn. I think... That it doesn't matter much if you cut your hair or not, you're beautiful to me either way."

The air left Pidge's chest in a surprised squeak of "_oh_!" and her hands flew to hide her face, covering her cheeks that were growing hot under her thumbs.  
"Oh my God," she breathed between nervous giggles. 

"I'm sorry, was that- was I too forward?" Her laughter burst fresh and she peeked out between her fingers to look at his concerned, bright red face peering at the screen.

"Oh God!" She repeated, breathless. "No, no! It was super sweet. You just... caught me by surprise."  
It wasn't like she'd never heard that compliment before. She had, from many places. Family, friends. Officers at Garrison events looking to bring her a drink, even once a reporter looking for an interview. Yet this was the first time from Keith. She couldn't say Keith was stingy when it came to compliments or never gave them, it was just that normally he chose to focus on other attributes, like her brain, her determination, her wit. She quite enjoyed knowing that he saw all those things about her, things she liked about herself, but compliments on her physical appearance had been few up until now. His voice had been gruff, but his words and eyes earnest and truthful, and having his attention like this even through a screen was a little overwhelming.

  
"I meant it."   
There it was again. That adamant sincerity, his jaw set defiantly as if daring her to question him. She finally pulled her hands away, aware that her face was still on fire.  
"I know you did."  
"So- you know... Do what you like. Screw other peoples' opinions. What- what else have you done today, other than eat and shower?" 

The attempt to change the subject was weak at best, but she smiled and rearranged herself to lounge sideways on her pillows and look up at the screen.

"It's been busy. I had tests to run in the lab- we've managed to start wormholing much longer distances since my trip, so we'll be moving onto sending more practice teams out soon with on-board installations. Then I had to lead a meeting on the progress, and after all that I hit the gym, came home and Matt had _cooked, _which is weird, but I'm not complaining. Then I decided to wash the gym stink off myself so I could hit the hay, and you called. Kind of boring really, sorry."

Her flustered giggles had subsided, but were replaced with the prickling of a yawn in the back of her throat. She covered her face again to hide it, but he cocked an eyebrow.

"I can go, if you're tired."  
"No, stay. Talk to me, I miss you." Not that she hadn't missed him before they became a couple; she missed every one of her friends when they were apart, but it had evolved for Keith.   
It was no longer just his company, the triumph of a laugh or smile. It was now the touch of his hand on hers, his arms all the way around her shoulders. Secret smiles and glances shared. Stolen moments and kisses, hurrying to gather as much time together as possible before work and responsibilities snatched the rest away. 

"You need your sleep, Pidge." He said, and when she pulled a face at him he grimaced back. "I miss you too, but it's important. You can't be sending things through wormholes if you're zombified."

"Compromise." Pidge said, kicking her legs in the air and tugging at the blankets to pull them out from under her. She rearranged the pillows, and leaned up from them to adjust her tablet so that they could see each other from the new angle, tucked a blanket up under her arm and hugged her arms around a pillow. She didn't remove the hoodie; it still smelled faintly of Keith and she could subtly tuck it up around her face as she listened to him talk.

"We talk until I fall asleep. This is relaxing enough that I think I might actually be able to drop off at a reasonable hour. You'd be doing me a favour staying."

"And then what? I watch you sleeping on camera like a creep?"

"I trust you to end the call; you're not a creep." She shot him a smile that admittedly felt heavy and sleepy.   
He was blushing again and she could sort of see why. There was a kind of intimacy in lying in her bed on screen, in her pajamas and floating on the edge of that vulnerable space of sleep with him watching. 

She suddenly missed him that much more; if he were with her, perhaps they could be sharing the bed. Would he be comfortable sharing a bed when it wasn't necessary for a mission, or when he wasn't so completely exhausted after a long journey that he could sleep where he dropped?   
They had shared sleeping spaces before with no problem. She knew he ran at a slightly higher temperature than was normal, and in Pidge's modest opinion those long arms were practically made for good cuddling. He'd make a perfect big spoon. She buried half her face in her pillow to suffocate the thoughts and opened one eye to look at him.

"See? I'm drifting a little now. Tell me what you're doing on this planet."

"It was occupied by the empire for several decades and they were using it to build weapons, so we're currently demolishing or renovating their camps, and they've completely razed all the resources so we're having food and supplies brought in. The current setup I'm in charge of is a better medical center and safe places for people to go." She nodded to show she was still listening and he continued.  
"There's kids just... existing here. No parents, no family, it's..." He ran a hand through his hair. "A lot of them are part Galra. Some of them listen to me because of that. Others don't really care, especially because I don't look Galra."

"There are tells, if you know where to look." Pidge murmured, and he looked at her with eyebrows raised.  
"Oh yeah?"

She nodded again, but didn't elaborate. Of course there were things about him, little things that were slightly different. His unnatural strength; someone so comparatively slight and wiry should not have the strength of several large men. The colour of his eyes in the right light was an odd purple, and reflected catlike in the dark. When he opened his mouth wide enough to laugh or eat, it was obvious how sharp his canines were. 

Once, she had come across him biting his fingernails, and had pulled a face at him and thrown a pair of nail clippers at his back. He'd had to sheepishly explain that even as a kid, he'd gone through of clippers and scissors by the dozens, eventually writing off the list of broken tools and just resorting to biting them short. She closed her hand around the fabric of the pillow, smiling at the memory of presenting him with a metal file found at a space mall that could actually do the job.

"Does that... Ever bother you? That I'm not completely human?"  
"Of course not. In fact it would probably go on the pro side of the list of 'Cool things about dating Keith'- not many people can say they're with an alien."

"Except for Lance." He shot back. "And Hunk. And Allura if we're getting technical."  
"Exactly, see? All the cool kids are doing it. It's not a big deal, and it doesn't bother me, I promise. Tell me more about these kids."

"There's a few of them helping with the rebuild- and I'm not knocking them for wanting to help, they're learning how to use tools and build stuff, but. They're kids, and I feel like they're missing the chance to _be _kids, you know? But they have no family, no one to watch out for them so they're having to grow up and do it themselves."

"Learning is never a bad thing. If they're willing and it means someone is watching out for them, it sounds like a good thing to me."  
"Maybe." He'd pulled his foot up onto his chair, hugging his knee to his chest while he stroked his face in thought with the same hand. With the screen this close, she could see the beginnings of a shadow of stubble along his jaw. "A lot of them are angry. And I _get _it. I was... kind of where they are once, sans tyrannical dictatorship. If it weren't for Shiro taking me under his wing, I'd be... I dunno. Not here."

_Dead or in prison _was written on his face and she gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.  
"I know that we're only here to help with rebuilding, and the leaders of the cities are talking about ways to help them, and it's not my place to meddle, but... It's just hard when you're getting to know them. Working with them, eating with them. Talking to them."

"It's hard to detach yourself from the situation, especially when you're seeing yourself in them. Maybe you and Shiro could put your heads together, build some sort of school for wayward kids across the universe."  
"Hah. Maybe. I'll file that one away for later but only because you have a track record of good ideas."  
"Damn right I do." Pidge answered thickly, closing her eyes to the sound of his answer. The volume was just enough that if she kept her eyes closed, she could pretend he was in the room. 

Maybe on the other side of the bed, his head propped on a pillow as he told her about his hopes and worries. She resisted the urge to tuck the hood up and over her head, and instead bunched part of one of her blankets up against her chest and it could be like hugging his arm to her.

Maybe she'd be able to convince him to spend weekend mornings just dozing together. No meetings, no flying, no work, just existing in the same space. 

"You're falling asleep." His voice was gentle, only vaguely cutting into her drifting thoughts.  
"Keep talking, it's like you're here with me."  
"I wish I was." There was a small pause, or maybe a long one? "Though I've never been in your bedroom, like that."  
"We've shared sleeping spaces."

"That's different. They were missions."  
"Come back to Earth soon. Then you can watch me fall asleep in person. We could sleep together."  
She heard his cough, and registered that maybe what she'd said could have a double meaning, but before she could hone in on what kind of meaning, he was speaking again.  
"I'll come back soon. Promise"  
"Good, I miss you." She felt like she was sinking further into the mattress, her voice sounded lower, in her own head, thicker like she was speaking around something in her mouth and yet looser, no filter. "I miss your face. I've been thinking... think 'M falling for you a little..."

Keith paused, waiting for her to speak again, to explain what he thought he'd just heard her say. She hadn't opened her eyes at all while speaking and now she was still, lips slightly parted and breath making her splayed hair flutter. Tucked around her pillow and clutching her blankets she seemed totally relaxed. 

He waited, just another couple of moments in case she snapped back awake, as she'd been known to do and terrify whoever had been trying to drape a blanket over her or take her back to her room. There was no more movement, just the sound of steady breathing.

"Goodnight, I guess." He said softly, leaning forward for the switch that would end the call. Finger on it, he paused for a moment and watched the screen and the lack of reaction to his words.   
He swallowed and thumbed the switch gently but not pressing down just yet.

"I love you, Pidge."

*

**Author's Note:**

> Keith has something he's working up to telling Pidge... When she can hear him. Eventually.


End file.
